


Hostage Situation

by little_librarian



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Post-Bumblebee (Movie 2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 04:44:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18803959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_librarian/pseuds/little_librarian
Summary: So the negotiator’s an idiot, Charlie thinks, but it’s worth it for the way his mouth gapes when she leans back against Bee’s leg and gives him a comforting, trusting pat.





	Hostage Situation

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after the movie and imagines that Charlie and Bee still hang out. This is technically a sequel to a reunion fic I’m working on; this one just got impatient.

Charlie’s just leaving the Autobots’ makeshift forest base when the government envoy shows up. Really, she was supposed to have left half an hour ago, but Bumblebee had gotten too enthusiastic while she was showing him how to skip rocks and she’d ended up completely drenched and hellbent on drying off at least a bit before getting in her Corvette. It’s not just that she’s late, though—she knows Optimus isn’t expecting these guys for another twenty minutes, because he’d mentioned it while giving Bumblebee a very stern, “all messes better be cleaned up before then,” look. Charlie should know; her mom has perfected that look. 

The government is trying to throw the Autobots off their game, Charlie realizes.  Yeah, good luck with that.

A man in a suit slides out of the first Humvee before the engine’s cut, smug and overconfident until he takes one look at Charlie and Bee, still damp around the edges, and says, “Oh shit.”

Charlie’s pretty sure negotiations aren’t supposed to start like this.

“Miss,” Mr. Suit says, approaching slowly with his hands raised placatingly, “are you okay?”

Charlie blinks. “Uh, yeah, I’m fine.” She looks up at Bee like he might know what this guy is going on about, but Bee just shrugs at her.

“Sir,” Burns says, getting out of the second car. He looks exasperated but utterly unsurprised at Charlie’s presence.

“I’m sure this all a mistake,” Mr. Suit continues. “You got in the wrong car; the robot didn’t notice and brought you back here on accident. It didn’t mean to kidnap you and it won’t hurt you.”

“Oh my god!” Charlie blurts, just as Bee lets out a distressed trill and shakes his head vigorously. “No kidnapping! Bee’s my friend. We were hanging out, I’m just a little late leaving.” So the negotiator’s an idiot, Charlie thinks, but it’s worth it for the way his mouth gapes when she leans back against Bee’s leg and gives him a comforting, trusting pat. “My car’s right there, see?”

Mr. Suit recovers quickly, like he didn’t just accuse Bumblebee of grand theft human, then turns to the Corvette parked just off the dirt road and says, completely serious, “And who might you be?”

Charlie has to elbow Bee to keep him from laughing, and maybe that wasn’t the smartest move but she’s pretty sure she won’t bruise. “It doesn’t transform,” she informs, barely restraining her own grin.

“Oh?” the guy says. “Was it...injured? Somehow?”

Burns actually drops his head into his hands.

“No, it’s just not a robot.”

With the punchline delivered, Bee doubles over and warbles his own laugh to accompany the audience laughing from his radio. Mr. Suit goes right back to gaping, because yes, Charlie did just play him like that. There’s a soldier behind Burns fighting a smile like his job depends on keeping a straight face; Charlie almost gets him to break with a wink.

“Get out of here, kid,” Burns sighs. For once, Charlie is happy to obey.

Bee shifts to four wheels of gorgeous Camaro and revs his engine in excitement while she slides into her own car. It’s practically tradition by now for her visits to end with a race to the end of the access road. If a spray of dirt hits the envoy when she and Bee peel out, well, it’s not like she told them to stand in the splash zone.

(The way Optimus sighs as he arrives, mixed in with his transformation sequence so only she and Bee hear the sound for what it is, tells her that he doesn’t quite see it the same way.)

**Author's Note:**

> I 100% imagine that Bee radioed Optimus like, “Hey, the government guy is here early,” and Optimus just dropped everything and hauled ass over there because Charlie and Bee absolutely cannot be trusted alone with idiots in suits.


End file.
